This invention relates generally to hand held carpet laying machines. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a hand held, gun-like tool adapted to facilitate the installation of carpets and associated padding within critical vertices formed between intersecting planar surfaces, such as those encountered in conjunction with staircases and the like.
In the prior art a wide variety of hand tools for aiding in the professional installation of carpet are known. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, normally a carpet pad or the like is stretched and placed on a floor and afterwards the carpet is properly installed thereupon. However, where the wall meets the floor or where vertices of steps are involved, it is very difficult to properly secure and fasten the carpet in a professional, workmanlike manner. Presently I am unaware of any suitable prior art tools for quickly, automatically electrically performing this very important and difficult function.
In the case of staircases, for example, a plurality of rather closely spaced-apart intersecting regions regularly occur, and it is difficult to properly lay the carpet and install the underlying padding within these regions in a workmanlike manner. The standard carpet laying procedure is to first install elongated, flat tack strips closely adjacent to and on opposite sides of the vertices. Multiple tack strips are thus typically employed on staircases in generally parallel relation on opposite sides of structural intersections, and they are commonly installed near the junction of floors and walls. When a pair of closely spaced-apart and generally parallel tack strips are properly installed above and immediately below a point of intersection, it is then possible to force the carpet into the crevice formed between adjacent tack strips by manually, forcibly wedging at least a portion of the carpet therebetween. Usually common hand tools such as an appropriately dulled chisel and a hammer are employed to drive carpet between the frictionally retaining tack strips. Those portions of the planar surfaces being covered by the carpeting between tack strips are normally covered by the mat. At best the aforedescribed installation process is relatively time consuming and imprecise, and it tires the workman and strains his patience. As a result, inefficiency and attendant labor expenses disadvantageously result.
In the prior art a variety of carpet handling machines are known for aiding in the installation of carpet. U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,092 discloses a carpet cutting machine. U.S. Pat. No. 3,538,523 discloses a carpet finishing tool adapted to aid in the cutting and setting of edges of carpet to finish in carpet inlay. The device of the latter reference includes a frame having a pair of guide wheels in conjunction with a reciprocating blade. However, the narrow crevice between tack strips is relatively innaccessible, and structure including potentially interfering parts (i.e. such as guide wheels and the like) often cannot suitably manipulate or contact that portion of the carpet to be wedged between the tack strips.
A manual carpet tucker is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,546,726. Another manual carpet trimming and finishing device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,932. Of less relevance is the carpet laying tool construction seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,790,976.
Notwithstanding the numerous hand held electrically powered hand tools of which I am aware which are aimed a carpet laying and finishing, it has been my experience that since the dimensions of the vertices between adjacent tack strips are so small, interference-free blade access to the tack strip crevice is a lacking prior art feature. In fact, I have found it to be quicker to manually pound the carpet between tack strips as described above rather than to employ known prior art machines. More particularly, after experimenting with the prototype of my invention, I have determined that an automatic electrical hand tool which functions much like a manual chisel is demanded, but because of the speed with which such a tool operates careful engineering must be employed to properly guide and control the reciprocating blade. It is necessary that the "crease" of the carpet resulting from tack strip wedging be minimal, uniform, and virtually unnoticeable. Moreover, a candidate installation hand tool must not endanger the user, while preventing damage or destruction of the carpet being installed.